TORRINGTON >> After 20 years of ruining kitchens and bathrooms, the parents of the Torrington boys swimming and diving team stood together and refused to let the boys use their houses to do their annual hair dying event. They instead set up a night at the Marinello School of Beauty in Torrington.

"It's nice to see it being organized," said head coach and former Torrington swimmer Andrew Marchand. "The parents took control, I am sure they're glad it's not in their houses anymore."

Marchand was a swimmer at Torrington, he graduated in 1995, when the seniors on the team decided that they would dye their hair before the Watertown meet.

"It started back in the early 90's, it was either '92 or '93," said Marchand. "The seniors wanted to do it, and we dyed it red for the school colors."

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Randi DeLeo the school director at Marinello School of Beauty was happy to help out the parents, letting them use the salon for their event for only five dollars a person.

"The parents didn't want them to use the houses anymore," said DeLeo. "We thought it would be great for our students to get great experience, they love doing this stuff."

The student workers stayed longer than they normally do.

With parents, fellow teammates and coach Marchand watching between 25-30 members of the team got their hair bleached and then dyed red. Most of them just had their whole head dyed red, but some athletes got creative getting red mohawks or just red tips.

"I am dying my head all red," said freshmen Mike Hodge, who is getting his hair dyed for the first time. "It's really exciting, feeling like part of the team."

Team unity is what the three senior team captains said when talking about why they continue this tradition.

"There is a little convincing, but it's a team thing so the guys want to do it," said senior captain Kevin Finn. "It's team bonding."

"It becomes a part of you," said senior captain Christopher Shea.

"I am going to miss this," said senior captain Anthony Parziales.

The younger members of the team appreciate the tradition and we're very excited to participate this year and every other year.

"This is definitely our big event, the majority of team participates," said sophomore Josh Coscia. "Other teams shave things into their heads, we dye our hair."

Throughout the night, multiple members of the team tried to convince coach Marchand to dye his hair with the team, because he is part of the team.

"I did it once in high school," coach Marchand laughed. "That's good enough for me."

The members of the team will keep their hair dyed for the rest of the season until the week before the Naugatuck Valley League tournament.

The reactions to the dyed hair were all different they ranged from "Man your hair looks sick; you actually went with that" to "wow this does not look good."

"You're never going to like it," said Finn. "But it's for the team that's what counts."